In the Spring of 1857, the Lord of the Manor of Audley
decided to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of his eldest son and heir in a
manner befitting his station. To avoid confusion we must distinguish between the
father and son, both of whom had the same names. Sir Thomas Fletcher Fenton
Boughey, 3rd Baronet, (1809-1880), had succeeded his father to the Lordship of
Audley in 1823. His son was also Sir Thomas (1836-1906), the knighthood being
automatically granted to the eldest son of a Baronet when he reached his
majority. The actual birthday was 5 April, and was celebrated at the family seat
of Aqualate Hall which is close to Newport, Shropshire. The main Audley event to
commemorate this coming-of-age, with the Bougheys in attendance, was held on the
afternoon and evening of Friday, 22 May 1857.

The Bougheys had owned the Audley estate since 1790, when the
3rd Baronet's grandfather, Sir Thomas Fletcher of Betley Court, had purchased
the land and titles from Hugo Meynell. Their territory stretched from the bottom
of Halmerend to Diglake, sharing borders with Heathcote's Apedale-Podmore estate
and Wedgwood's Bignall End estate. It contained nearly a dozen farms and well
over a hundred dwellings, a total of 182 rateable properties. In the Return of
Landowners for 1873, the Boughey's combined Aqualate and Audley estates totalled
10,505 acres, yielding gross annual rents of £15,849. In addition the royalties
from mining would be much more than this.

The main coming-of-age celebration was a ball held in the
large room of the Boughey Arms Inn, paid for by the squire, and attended, we are
told, by 300 guests. The family travelled there by carriage from Aqualate, and
were greeted at the entrance to Audley by a large procession which included
several musical bands, who led them through the village to the square by the
inn. Indeed, so enthusiastic was the crowd that they unhitched the horses and
pulled the Boughey carriage by hand along Church Street. Floral arches had been
erected, and flags and banners hung from many windows. At the square the young
master stood up in the open carriage and briefly addressed the huge crowd. He
thanked them for their welcome and goodwill, modestly disclaiming that he
deserved any such honour on his own merits. Their generosity, he believed, was a
proof of their regard for his family. In the future, he would carry out his
duties to the village following the example which his father had set him. The
ball which followed continued into the early hours of Saturday morning.

This glittering function was attended by neighbouring
landowners, some of whom, like the Twemlows of Betley, were related to the
Bougheys through marriage. Also invited were the major tenants, who were mostly
farmers, and leading tradespeople, in fact the middle classes of Audley.
However, the large body of workers who actually created Boughey's wealth from
the coal mines and the farm fields were not forgotten. The pits were laid off
for the day and the mine agent, Robert Rigby senior, who managed their Boyles
Hall colliery, which had opened in 1803 close to Boon Hill, organised two
entertainments. The wives of miners were given tea at the Red Lion Inn, and
their children were given commemorative mugs, while their husbands had a
bountiful supply of ale provided in a tent nearby.

On this special occasion many Audley people would remember
the events which accompanied the birth of this heir, twenty-one years earlier,
in the Spring of 1836. To one family in Boon Hill those birth celebrations had
been unforgettable, and marked a turning point in their lives. To welcome the
new-born infant the church bells had been rung for "three entire days", and on
the fourth day, Friday 8 April, a great celebration was held in the village.
These festivities were similar to those described above, but no one from
Aqualate Hall attended on that occasion. A large dinner was organised at the
Boughey Arms by the tenant farmers and the minor gentry of the parish, presided
over by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Garrett, assisted as vice-president by farmer
Daniel Booth of the Wall. This feast began at four in the afternoon and
continued to the close of the day. The fare included the fashionable "Roast Beef
and Plum Pudding". A speech from the vicar praised the Lord of the Manor,
pointing out to the assembled farmers that during the then agricultural
depression he had, like other local landlords, remitted a portion of their rents
to mitigate their hardship. Such reminders of their Lord's largesse were cheered
to the echo. From the large number of toasts made, much wine must have been
consumed. How else could they have sustained cheering "the birth of the Heir
of Aqualate ..... 4 times 4 cheers were given, and again and again, 'one cheer
more' , bespoke the enthusiastic sincerity of the party".

The ordinary folk were also entertained, though with less
formality. A beer tent was provided for the men during the afternoon, the pits
having been closed for the day. Robert Rigby had organised this for his
workforce on Boughey's behalf so that all could "wet the baby's head". Ale was
invariably provided in barrels and was decanted into pitcher jugs for pouring
into tankards, usually their own brought by the drinkers. Such occasions were
repeated at coronations, ending of wars and overlords weddings, so these
infrequent treats were not to be missed by ordinary folk, whose own family event
celebrations were meagre by comparison.

It may be wondered why so much ale was consumed in an area
with a growing Methodist influence. Bob Rigby who organised the alcoholic
refreshment on Boughey's behalf was a Wesleyan preacher, and many of his
workforce belonged to the chapel. The Primitive Methodists were strictly
abstainers, but were in a minority locally. The Wesleyans were more liberal,
particularly in the first half of the century, and merely encouraged temperance.
Indeed ale was served to the men at Circuit functions in various parts of the
country, and preachers could even be offered a glass of wine in the vestry
before a service. In October 1846, Audley Wesleyans began a serious campaign to
curb excessive drinking. In their schoolroom in Chapel Street a lecture was
given by Dr.Warham of Newcastle. His subject was "the effects of alcohol on the
human system" and was illustrated by "beautiful drawings" .

At Boyles Hall colliery the banksman who controlled the
movement of cages was a man whose general behaviour over the years had earned
him a terrible reputation. He was given to heavy drinking and other intemperate
habits, and was noted as a bully to his family, neighbours and workmates. He
particularly disliked the growing band of Methodists, many of whom worked in his
pit, and who were sponsoring the growing Temperance movement. A particularly bad
habit of his was to hold out a half brick over the shaft when he recognised a
chapel-goer ascending at the end of a long shift. "Sing, or I'll drop it",
he would taunt them, and the person beneath, knowing his reckless character,
would wisely strike up a Wesley hymn. This oft-repeated prank earned him the
nickname of "Drop it".

His actual identity was William Statham (1796-1873) and some
of these events are loosely related in George Sudlow's now elderly, but much
treasured book describing life on the slopes of Boon Hill. Sudlow, who admits in
his preface to adding some imagination to his narrative, was writing over half a
century later and relied both upon the collective hearsay of his older
contemporaries, what he called 'fireside talks', and the recall of "Drop it's"
daughter Amy in her later years, as she had witnessed some of the events which
follow. George Sudlow (1852-1913) spent much of his life in Halmerend earning
his living from various occupations including as a carter and a shopkeeper. His
father Samuel had been the Halmerend township roadmender, and his elder brother
Robert (born 1842) was a forgeman who had become a Wesleyan local preacher in
the mid-1860s. George, who by 1875 was also a preacher, had for several years in
the 1890s been contributing anecdotes on chapel life in the Audley district to
the Local Preacher's Magazine, and the editor of that journal had been
instrumental in facilitating the book of 1905. He was clearly a man of ability,
who felt that his evangelical predecessors should not fade into unrecorded
history.

On 8 April 1836, "Drop it", who always liked his tipple,
could not resist the offer of free ale in such large quantities. He went early
to the fountain, on his own, and stayed late. As dusk was falling, his wife
became anxious for him. She imagined him lying paralytic in a ditch or injured
after a brawl - he had often attracted trouble. He was now 40, and as a family
man, he was getting too old to behave in this manner. She set out to search for
him. The Statham home was a cottage near the summit level of Boon Hill Road,
close to the present site of Bignall End Cricket Pavilion. A small building and
garden rented from Sir Thomas for £3 a year, it occupied 5 perches of land,
approximately 150 square yards. In 1836 all of the 34 homes on Boon Hill
belonged to the Lord of the Manor. As the boundary between two townships was the
centre of the road, the 13 houses on the west side of Boon Hill were in Audley,
and the 21 on the east were in Bignall End. Successive Census returns show that
"Drop it" lived in the last house on the east side, almost opposite the track
which led down to Boyles Hall Colliery, where he worked.

Unfortunately for his wife, there were two possible routes
between their home in Boon Hill and Audley, one by the main road, Ravens Lane,
the other through the colliery workings and along Delph Lane to the pump at the
junction of Chapel Street and New Road. Mrs. Statham chose one of these routes,
while her inebriated husband was staggering home at the same moment by the
alternative way. When "Drop it" arrived home he found his children there, but no
dutiful wife awaiting him with his supper ready, and he was somewhat annoyed.
"Where's your mother? A nice thing this, when a mon comes home for a bit o'
meat, for find his wife out. If that's it, now hers out, her stops out."

He secured both doors and windows, allegedly with a hammer
and nails, and was then overtaken by a morbid depression caused by his larger
than usual intake of ale, and the gloom of eventide, so he decided upon his own
illuminations to match those created in Audley for the celebrations. As a
banksman he kept a large number of pit candles in the house, which he proceeded
to light, and placed them all round the room, many in precarious positions.
According to Sudlow, presumably quoting the elder daughter, "the mantelpiece,
chest of drawers, sofa, chairs, everything was covered with tallow candles, and
lighted". His two frightened girls, Amy and Eliza , were ordered to bed, and
he soon fell into a deep, unconscious sleep in his chair, his frantic wife
outside unable to enter. Under one of the beds was stored a quarter barrel of
blasting powder belonging to the pit, twenty-eight pounds of it! It is a miracle
that no fire or explosive tragedy occurred, not only to the Statham household,
but to several of their Boon Hill neighbours as well. This was before the
stringent regulations governing the storage of explosives at mines, when keeping
powder dry seems to have been more important than safety. We can speculate that
several of these neighbours, realising the danger, must have later assisted the
wife's entry into her home.

Next morning, this near disaster would have been the main
talking point in Boon Hill. One neighbour took it upon himself to intervene in
"Drop it's" affairs. This self-employed nailmaker, four years older than
Statham, lived at the bottom of the bank where it meets Ravens Lane. He had been
a Wesleyan local preacher since 1824, and although he had little formal
education, or literary skill to his credit, Samuel Brindley (1792-1875), was by
then a character well-known in the area for his zealous, and most effective
evangelism. He set his sights on "Drop it" and would not cease until he had "won
him for the Lord". After much man-to-man talk, which Sudlow partially recreates
as "Come, owd mon, this sort o' work wunner do. Thee'lt blow us all up. Nah
let me give thee a bit of advice. Thee come chapel wi' us o' Sunday: give thy
ear to God; it'll make a mon o' thee" It worked! "Drop it" was converted
soon after and became not only a worthy member, but eventually a trustee, of
Audley Wesleyan Chapel.

This new life brought its own rewards. With sobriety and its
associated thrift, the Stathams saved enough money to be able to live in
reasonable comfort in their retirement. In his final summer William is reported
as sitting by his garden gate giving out bags of sweets and nuts to Sunday
School scholars as they passed his home. When he died in 1873, aged 77,
Statham's will included "I also leave £10 towards the erection of a new
Wesleyan chapel at Audley." This was a large sum for a working man at that
time. He never lost his nickname, however, and when he died, a miner in Wood
Lane, who was a leader in the Wesleyan chapel there, recorded in his diary:
10 August 1873 - William Statham died at Boon Hill -"Drop it".

Sammy Brindley lived for a further two years, and died on 23
October 1875. The last decades of his life were lived against a background of
increasing poverty. Domestic nailmaking had succumbed to factory-made
competition by the middle of the century, when he was too old to take up a new
trade. He continued in minor blacksmithing for a few years, but with limited
financial reward. Fellow local preachers devised a scheme to enrol him into the
Wesleyan LPMA , but the premium for such a late entry, like any insurance scheme
was prohibitive. They raised the money by selling a photograph of Sammy which
had been taken by some well-meant deception, as he was both a proud and a shy
man. Many copies of this portrait were sold within local chapel communities at a
shilling each, and Brindley received a regular small pension till the end of his
days. He had continued conducting services in the Audley and Chesterton area up
to the summer of 1873 at the age of 80. He had chosen the verse for his
gravestone in Audley Churchyard some time before, It reads:

Before his death he was a crier in the wilderness;

His form of crying was to say, 'Turn, sinner, from your
evil way.

Repent and have your sins forgiven; and you and I shall
meet in Heaven'.

Sir Thomas Boughey the 3rd Baronet died in 1880, and the
press had difficulty finding any of his achievements which they could praise in
his obituary. It concluded "Indeed he may best be described as having lived a
singularly uneventful life." One is reminded of W.S.Gilbert's description of
the House of Lords in Iolanthe " ...(they)..did nothing in particular, and
did it very well:" He was succeeded by his heir, the 4th Baronet, whose key
birthdays we have seen so well marked in Audley. He in turn died in 1906. Both
are buried in the family vault at Forton Church, in which parish Aqualate Hall
is situated. As young Sir Thomas had no children, the eldest of his seven
brothers, Rev. Sir George Boughey, succeeded him to the titles. He had been the
Rector of Forton for many years and died in 1910. Three more childless brothers
succeeded in turn, Sir William (died 1912), Rev.Sir Robert, vicar of Betley
(died 1921) and Sir Francis who died in 1927. As each of these twentieth-century
deaths attracted growing Estate Duties, the frequency of the calls for large
sums of money by the Exchequer necessitated the sale of assets. It was the
Audley property which was sold over these years, thus severing the Boughey link
with the village. Aqualate Hall was destroyed by fire in 1910, and a new house
built on the site in 1927-30.

In newspaper references to the manorial events mentioned
above, the word noble often occurs. One might ponder whether this nobility was
to be found in marbled halls in spacious estates, or in a humble nailmaker's
cottage at the foot of Boon Hill. One of the motives for producing this article
is to mark the Bicentenary (1796-1996) of the recognition of accredited local
lay preachers within Methodism, who have done so much during two centuries to
prosper that cause.

[ If any reader is descended from any of the people mentioned
above, and/or can add any further information on any of the events or situations
mentioned, the writer would be delighted to hear from them.]